We've done a few successful ebay/gumtree stings where the original owner has arranged to view/buy and our officers have knocked on the door instead.

Two points;

the thief is likely to have sold it for peanuts to pay for drugs to someone he knows who can move it on. We recently had a guy in who admitted stealing an £800 bike (and he knows bikes enough to know it was worth £800), he swapped it for three £10 bags of heroin.

Its difficult to prove handling as the 'new owner' invariably claims to have bought it at a car boot sale (rather than the bloke down the pub), which removes the 'fair value' element of why they might know or believe it was stolen.